Aircraft-sized asteroid to fly past Earth today! Close call predicted by NASA

NASA has recently shed light on an asteroid whose orbit will bring it close to Earth. This Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) is expected to make its closest approach to Earth today, September 22. Whilst this space rock will come very close to the planet, it is not expected to impact the surface. According to NASA, Asteroid 2023 RQ6 will pass by Earth at a distance of around 6 million kilometers. It is already on its way toward the planet, traveling at a blistering speed of 33912 kilometers per hour.

Asteroid 2023 RQ6: Is it dangerous?

Despite its close approach and breakneck speed, NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has not classified this asteroid as a Potentially Hazardous Object due to its relatively small size. These are celestial objects larger than about 490 meters that can approach the Earth within 7.5 million kilometers. According to NASA, Asteroid 2023 RQ6 is nearly 76 feet wide, meaning it is as big as an aircraft!

The space agency has also revealed that it belongs to the Apollo group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are Earth-crossing space rocks with semi-major axes larger than Earth’s. These asteroids are named after the humongous 1862 Apollo asteroid, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.

Interestingly, this asteroid has not come close to Earth in its history, and this will be its first-ever close approach. After today, it is not expected to pass Earth anytime soon, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission

Most asteroids are located in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars and do not ever come close to Earth. However, this isn’t the case with a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) called Bennu, which has a 1/2700 chance of impacting Earth between 2175 and 2195, according to NASA. To aid in its efforts of studying this asteroid and its composition, NASA launched the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) on September 8, 2016.

This spacecraft landed on the asteroid in 2020 and collected samples of rocks and dirt from its surface. Now, the mission is nearing its completion, and it will touch down on Earth on September 24 after a 6-year stint. When it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will release the sample-containing capsule, which will then parachute to the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range, where the mission team will be present to retrieve it.